Sporting Highlights for 2006

Here are the sporting highlights of the world of sport in 2006. The biggest event of the year was the FIFA World Cup in Germany, with the Winter Olympics another big world event. The Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne.

On Jan 22nd, basketballer Kobe Bryant, the black mamba, put on his superhuman mask and torched the Toronto Raptors scoring 81 points. Though billed as the second highest score in a match after Wilt's 100, most ardent basketball fans consider this as the greatest game ever by a single player.

It’s tough, to say the least, to get a hat-trick in cricket, even tougher in a test match, and close to impossible to get one in the very first over of a match. Ifran Pathan achieved this historical feat on Jan 29th in a Test match against Pakistan where he picked three straight wickets in the last three balls of the very first over of the match.

Rafael Nadal won his second straight French Open title defeating Roger Federer in the finals. Federer though got back on the then budding star in the Wimbledon finals that same year to win his 4th straight Wimbledon title. Federer won three of the four grand slam events.

When the name is Michael Jordan, anything is news, this one on an unfortunate note though, where Michael was divorced after 17 years of marriage with Juanita Vanoy. On another sad note from the NBA, coaching legend Red Auerbach passed away on Oct 28th at the age of 89.

Tiger Woods won the British Open and his 3rd US PGA, and maintained top position on the Top Earners for 2006.

In the Tour de France, Floyd Landis was the initial winner but subsequently rubbed out due to a failed drug test.

Please note that the dates for past events are not always known, and are sometimes just placed in the month that the current event is held. If no exact date is listed, then it is just an estimated month that it was held.

If you have a correction or know of events that should be included here, please let me know. You can also send a comment below.